Moving In

We picked up the keys to the new place at just after 9 on Saturday.  Lindsey came with us.  The place we eventually rented wasn't one of the places she had inspected with us so she hadn't seen inside it and was curious.

Then she went down to visit Stella and Tony, and Jim and I began moving some of our stuff that was at their place down to our place.  Important things like the kettle and toaster, cups for having tea and coffee in, glasses for wine.  We went back to Lindsey and Ian's place. Ours wasn't ready for inhabitants.  No bed, for a start off :-D Emily came for dinner and Ian made a really delicious roast chicken with halloumi, mint and pomegranate and roasted veg. There was lots left for Sunday :-)

Sunday was a lovely day.  Lindsey, Jim and I went to Bacchus Marsh to check out their autumn festival.  It wasn't as big as the summer one but it was still good fun.  The advertising said that it was a celebration of the vegetable harvest but there were no obvious vegetable stalls.  The spice lady who we see in Ballarat was there.  I got extra supplies of her jackaroo dukkah in case we miss her next month!  We did enjoy it, but I'm not sure if we would go again.  The stalls we were particularly interested in also come to Ballarat.  We shall have to check out a different market/festival next year.  Spread the love and eventually collect them all :-D

After we got back, Jim and I went into Ballarat and bought a freezer, vacuum cleaner and an iron from a purveyor of electrical goods.  We went to Bunnings and got a bucket and mop, an ironing board, a padlock for the new letterbox and a few bits and pieces that Jim wanted.  We went to Wilsons and bought a big bag of onions to go with the 10 kilos of tomatoes that Lindsey brought back with her on Saturday.  I am going to put up  bags of tomatoes and onions for the freezer for the winter for both houses, adding zucchini as they come to hand.

Ian had a not so exciting day sorting out his tax stuff for his accountant.

Yesterday was a public holiday in Victoria. Labour Day, 8 Hour Day, call it what you will.  These days lots of people work it.  We worked it too, but not in paid employment.  Ian said that he was proposing to hire a trailer and to move our stuff from the lock up storage place to our new place, their stuff from the storage place to their place and other stuff into their skip.  He and Jim spent the day heroically going backwards and forwards, collecting things from the lock up and delivering things to our place, things to their place and generally rushing around.  I went to our new place and did the ironing while waiting for the freezer to be delivered.  Once boxes started arriving I began unpacking them and putting as much away as I could.  Lindsey helped out at our place, at the lock up, at their house, and kept the dogs entertained from time to time.

I made my first foray into Facebook Marketplace this week, having read about someone's good experience with it on their blog.  Lindsey and I went and collected a student desk with attached drawers and two shelves, plus a desk chair and a desk lamp for the princely sum of $80.  It's ideal for what I need.

So Jim and I had our first night in our new place last night.  Lindsey and Ian went back to their place, we stayed at ours. Jim re-constructed our bed. I went and got provisions (I must confess that I didn't cook from scratch; I bought a ready-made lasagne!)  The boxes are all unpacked and most things are put away.  Probably not in the final resting places (as it were) but at least in cupboards, on shelves, not on the floor.  There are some things on the floor in the study but I can sort them out on Thursday.

I keep wanting to call it a little place but it's not really all that little.  It has three good sized bedrooms. The kitchen/dining/lounge room is, I think, smaller than the three separate rooms in Tupton but probably not by a lot.  What we don't have is the small cellar and the capacious cupboard on the landing.  But we have quite a lot of cupboards.  We should be OK.

Our place is about 2 km down the hill from Lindsey and Ian's place, almost directly.  We have been puzzling over a name for it.  Lindsey has been calling it The House in the Valley.  It's not really in a valley, more at the bottom of the hill.  But the Japanese translation for (Our) House in the Valley is  谷のうち, tani no uchi.  I like that.  Tani no Uchi it is.  Well, until the place tells us that it already has a name and reveals it to us.